East-West Road: suffering without end

A friend of mine who travelled recently on the East-West road came back with nothing but tales of woe. “That road is terrible! That such a vital road is in such bad state is a shame!” she had declared, with a hiss.

Her experience mirrors that of many other travelers on that road. Last year, a colleague, who was unlucky enough to travel on the road during the flooding that swept through many states in that part of the country, narrowly escaped drowning on the road. She stated that the water level was so high, it nearly reached up to her neck. “Many vehicles were stuck and passengers had to resort to wading through the water while others continued their journey by canoe,” she narrated.

The East-West road, which links the key oil-producing states of Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa, is of vital economic and social importance in that region. Before the road was constructed sometime in the 80s, travelers to Edo and Delta states had to go through Owerri, Onitsha and on to Asaba, Benin, Warri and other parts of the region. It was a long, tedious journey that could take a whole day but the East-West highway shortened the journey by many hours.

Indeed, when the road was still in a motorable state, a man could travel from Port-Harcourt to Warri, do his business and return home the same day and still have time to attend to other things. The unfortunate inter-tribal crises between the Itsekiri, Urhobo and Ijaw tribes that erupted in Warri in the late 1990s caused a large number of residents to migrate from the oil city to Port-Harcourt which was deemed safer. Many have not returned till date. What happens is that they work in Port-Harcourt during the week and travel to Warri to visit family and friends at weekends, something made possible by the road.

From all this, one can see how vital that road is to the region and it’s one highway in the country that should be well-maintained at all times. But that has not been the case. For years, the poor state of the road has been of major concern to motorists. In the past, before the dualisation of the road began, many portions regularly failed. This was attributed by experts to the terrain of the area rather than poor construction or traffic volume. They could be right. The road lies mostly in swampy, water logged terrain especially the portion between Sagbama (in Bayelsa) and Patani (in Delta). Besides, it runs through thick, primordial jungle that looks untouched by man since creation and looks filled with all kinds of wild animals.

A few years ago, when the newly created Ministry for the Niger-Delta took over the road and began dualising it, many Niger-Deltans and others who ply the road, were happy that their suffering would soon be over. As things turned out, their joy was short lived. Now the road is nearly impassable and making a journey on it is like being on the highway to hell. It’s that bad. And it keeps getting worse yet the government remains indifferent to the plight of the people. As someone pointed out the other day, they don’t care because many top government officials and their cronies don’t travel by road but fly around in helicopters and private jets.

All we keep hearing is that multi-billion naira contracts have been awarded to contractors to work on the road. Well, from all indications, they must be ghost contractors because nobody seems to see them on site doing any work. I passed that road in December last year and there was no single workman on site. So, what is really going on? That is a question the ministry under the watch of Elder Godsday Orubebe, who incidentally is from the region, need

to answer.

Nigerians are tired of bad, unmotorable roads everywhere. Infact, the state of our roads, highways and other infrastructure, has been likened to that of a country just emerging from the ravages of war. We might not have fought any war since 1970 when the civil war ended but not every war involves guns, bombs, scud missiles and other weapons of mass destruction. A different kind of ‘war’ which has claimed the lives of thousands if not millions of the nation’s citizens and impoverished a large majority, is going on in the country. It’s called corruption, which has been declared on the people of this country by its leaders. Corruption has turned our roads to death traps, made our hospitals hostile places, schools that are unsuitable for learning, made millions live in decrepit houses and unhealthy environments and others go to bed hungry, created a vast army of jobless youths who roam the streets daily in search of non-existent jobs with no hope in sight…

While the civil war ended after six years of hostilities, this present war is one that has no end in sight. Will it ever end so that Nigerians can live well and enjoy their God-given resources without most of it being stolen? Only time will tell…